Sim City
Platform: ZX Spectrum
Region: UK
Media: Snapshot
Controller: Keyboard
Genre: Simulation - Strategy
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1989
Developer: Probe Software Ltd
Publisher: Infogrames
Players: 1
Licensed from: Maxis Sofware Ltd
Programmer: Antony R. Lill, Simon Butler
Designer: Will Wright
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SimCity sets you as the mayor of a new municipality, with the responsibility of building and maintaining a place where citizens can move to and work and be happy. The first task is to place essentials such as housing, transport links, schools, factories and shops. There are 50 types of these, allowing for homes of all standards and different types of businesses. Make sure to consider which sites are effective for which tasks. Some power sources pollute, others don't but are more expensive. Taxes must be raised to ensure an income, and then portions allocated to public services such as policing and roads. Earthquakes, floods and fires are all emergency situations that must be dealt to contain any damage.

Successful mayoring will cause the small village to grow into a town, then a city and finally a metropolis. As the city's size grows so do it's needs. Commercial buildings may suddenly find that they need an airport to expand trade, or housing may find itself changing rapidly as vast amounts of people come and leave.

The game also includes 8 pre-defined time-limited scenarios, with specific challenges and targets. The environment varies in each game (especially if you have the Terrain Editor add on), and this should affect your choices.

Trivia:

The original game's source was released under a GPL license in January 2008. The game's name was changed to Micropolis because Electronic Arts holds the license, and plane crashes have been removed because of the 9/11 incident.

The Commodore 64 version of the this game is awful, and is missing features that even the Spectrum version has. Some of the things missing are fire and police stations, the eval stat screen, stadiums, and meltdowns.

According to Johnny L Wilson's "SimCity Planning Commission Handbook", a big influence on Will Wright in formulating the concept of this game (or "software toy") was an anthology of short stories by Stanislaw Lem entitled "The Cyberiad" -- especially one in which master inventor Trurl builds deposed tyrant Excelsius a "kingdom in a box" in which to harmlessly exercise his tyrannical urges. (Eventually, the people in the box manage to overthrow Excelsius.)

Some of the game's "random disasters" aren't really random at all. For instance, if you demolish a church a tornado will strike your city...every time!

SimCity was inspired by the work Jay Forrester did at MIT. Using a specialized programming language called DYNAMO, he modeled various statistics about the world to determine how to create high quality of life. He also wrote a program to assist in urban planning.


http://www.mobygames.com/game/zx-spectrum/simcity
